COLD BURN

Foul play among the thoroughbreds brings Ehrman’s young Lochinvar riding to the rescue once more.

Steve Kline, hero of Ehrman’s horse-whodunits (Dead Man’s Touch, 2003, etc.), rarely saddles up, but that doesn’t mean he lacks for derring-do. Show Steve a damsel in distress, and he’s off to the races. The damsel this time is sweet Corey Claremont, a client at Maryland’s Foxdale Farm, where Steve is barn manager. Corey’s brother has gone lost, strayed, or stolen. Will Steve place his famous investigative powers, his well-known resourcefulness, and his knight-errantry in her service and please find out which? Of course. Off he goes undercover, signing on for the nightshift at Stone Manor, the breeding farm in Warrrenton, Virginia, where Bruce Claremont was last seen. There, he meets elegant, troubled Dr. Deirdre Nash, who owns the place, and saucy, bouncy Maddie O’Connell, expert midwife to anything equine and indefatigable temptress to anything in pants. He meets the motley collection of men who lust after them and does all the lusting proper to a 20-year-old hero himself, though never at the expense of his knightly mission. As for Bruce, it turns out there are darker aspects to the Claremont gene pool than Corey ever imagined.

While gallant Steve isn’t always believable, he’s increasingly irresistible in Ehrman’s best yet.